Attorney General Janet Reno all but declared a stalemate today in the Justice Department-FBI negotiations with the telecommunications industry on the issue of how to build a system that will give law enforcement the ability to listen in to new generations of digital communications.
Under 1994's Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act - CALEA, for short - federal law enforcers and the telecoms were charged with devising a system under which police with court orders could tap into wireless and digital calls.
The stumbling block is cost. To build a system that, as the FBI wants, can listen in on 50,000-plus calls simultaneously would be extraordinarily expensive. Congress set aside US$500 million for the job, though both the industry and Reno herself believe the price tag will be higher.
Facing a late October deadline to have a system in place, negotiations on the issue have heated up. But Reno today acknowledged that the talks haven't gotten anywhere and that the matter is likely to go to the court of last resort, the Federal Communications Commission, for resolution.
"I think ... the matter will ultimately be resolved in the FCC, but we're continuing discussions so that we narrow the issues in every way possible," Reno said at her weekly press conference.
Neither the government nor the industry is pleased with the thought of the agency brokering a solution because it's likely to need an extended period to write and enact its orders.
Roy Neel, president of the United States Telephone Association, seconded Reno's opinion that the FCC would arbitrate the decision. His brief but bitter analysis of the impasse: It's "entirely because of the Justice Department's complete intransigence on these critical issues.... The staff at Justice seem to have their heels dug in, seem to be totally unwilling to give on what we think are central issues," Neel told the Associated Press.
